Bright Frights, Big City

Nearly two weeks ago my wife and I made the trek to Chicago and saw our first concert together in a very long time. I was trying to remember the last live show we saw and I think it might have been Steve Vai in October of 2016. We used to go to concerts on […]

Beach House : Once Twice Melody

Beach House, the Baltimore dream pop duo consisting of Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally, have been making dreamy indie rock since 2006. Right out of the gate these two have settled into a sound that is centered on melancholy keys, echoing guitar lines, and Legrand’s deep and hypnotic vocals. Their sound seems as if Cocteau […]

Pike Vs The Automaton : Pike Vs The Automaton

Matt Pike is the king of the Heshers. Shirtless, long-haired Midwestern punk who relocated to Oakland, CA as a teen, if Pike hadn’t found his purpose in a Gibson Les Paul and a Marshall stack he probably would’ve ended up in jail. He took his teenage Black Sabbath worship and love of mind-altering substances and […]

When Worlds Collide : A Conversation With AE Paterra

In the spring of 2021 I was asked by Andrew Crawshaw to interview AE Paterra(Majeure, Zombi) about the vinyl reissue of Majeure’s excellent cassette-only release Union Of Worlds. Crawshaw had started his own record label, SFI Recordings, and was putting out forward-thinking electronic music in the spirit of 70s/80s Private Press and experimental Komische and […]

Kurt Vile Returns With (watch my moves), Out 4/15; Listen To “Like Exploding Stones”

I’m ashamed to admit it, but I’ve skipped out on some live shows that I’d actually bought tickets for. Yes, I know it’s awful. Back in 2014 for example, the wife and I were about an hour and ten minutes into 2 1/2 hour drive to see Spoon in Indianapolis when both of us sort […]

Ready Lets Go : Board Of Canada’s ‘Geogaddi’ 20 years Later

As much as I’d like to say the Beatles or the Stones or Radiohead or Wilco were the most pivotal musical moment for me, I think the truth is that hearing Boards of Canada for the first time might be even more pivotal. There was something about hitting play on a Boards of Canada album […]

Spoon : Lucifer On The Sofa

I think it’s fair to say that Spoon have been one of the most reliable American rock bands in the last 20 years. While they released two great post-punk albums in the late 90s, their career in my mind truly began in 2001 with Girls Can Tell. From that point the Texas rock band started […]

Carlton Melton : Microwavelengths

Labor Day Weekend, 2017. A heatwave beat down on Point Arena, California gifting Mendocino County with one of the hottest weekends on record. Somewhere nestled in the wooded landscape of Redwoods that touch the clouds with ease sat a geodesic dome where psych rockers Carlton Melton created their hazy “dome rock”. And on that oppressively […]

Pye Corner Audio : Entangled Routes

I’m of the opinion that whenever a new Pye Corner Audio album comes out it’s the best one yet from Martin Jenkins’ long-running electronic project. His haunted downtempo electro sound feels right at home in some dystopian future. Under-the-radar-techno mixed with sci-fi soundscapes and touches of horror, the occult, and VHS dreams emanate from Jenkins’ […]

’68 To ’72 : MIles And ‘Water Babies’

It’s safe to say that Miles Davis was the first jazz artist I was obsessed with. I bought Thelonious Monk’s Monk’s Dream back in the mid-90s, but I didn’t deep dive into jazz until the late 2000s when I bought an AT-PL120. Yes, my jazz journey coincided with my purchase of a record player. It […]